1. Technical Field
The invention relates to user access to content. More particularly, the invention relates to speech controlled access to content on a presentation medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the number of channel and program choices for cable and digital broadcast satellite subscribers has grown to the point where the television viewer is faced with a vast array of programming options. The breadth of service providers and depth and variety of content has made it more difficult for the television viewer to find the programs they want to watch. In the face of this challenge, the television viewing experience remains anchored in passive simplicity.
It would be advantageous to provide television viewers with an intuitive and easy-to-use way to find the programs they want and to control their television viewing experience.
It would also be advantageous to provide a speech control interface, in combination with a variety of search functions, such that television viewers have an intuitive and easy-to-use way to find the programs and information they want.
It would also be advantageous to provide the use of personalization as a way to filter and deliver relevant content and services to users based on individual preferences.
It would also be advantageous to provide a hierarchical user interface for speech-controlled, interactive applications, that gives television viewers an intuitive and easy-to-use way to find the programs they want and to control their television viewing experience.
Another problem exists in existing digital cable systems, where the channels that are available to watch in full screen TV and the program guide (the “channel lineup”) are fixed and non-changing, assuming that the channel lineup itself does not change. In current systems, when the channel up and down buttons are pressed, the user navigates through all channels of the entire channel lineup.
It would be further advantageous for the channel lineup to be dynamic and changeable, i.e. the list of available channels can be modified, in real time, to suit the preferences and usage of a particular subscriber.
There is also substantial prior art in the design of speech recognition systems, and in systems that identify the speaker, group, language, or emotional state associated with a given speech sample. There is also substantial prior art in selecting an advertising medium or vehicle to target a desired segment of the population.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that addresses the use of speaker, group, language, or emotional state identification systems to target advertising, to users who are enrolled in a speaker ID system, by virtue of having previously supplied a voice sample to the system, or to users who are not so enrolled.